Sell your team. The players ARE the entertainment and the draw. Without the owners... some other billionaire owns the team. After losing a season where the players gave up tons the owners want more. this is ridiculous.

Another billionaire buying the team would be the same case. And they would then be taking the financial responsibility. It's a business. Not to mention, players already get an absurd amount of money. And like all sports, their pay will steadily increase over time. As of late, it's been increasing rather rapidly for all star players.

and despite what the owners say it's not about turning a profit. There are many, many more lucrative and safer business ventures. If these billionaires wanted a good return they'd invest elsewhere. It's all about being an owner. Owning a team is like owning/investing in artwork. You don't plan on selling it, you want to have it, it has a value.

I can semi-see the Owners POV. With only the 43% of HRR, they're expected to keep up the stadium, pay the medical staff, buy equipment, pay the support staff etc. etc. So I can see why they want the players to come to a more even split. It's foolish to try and get it from 57% down to wherever they offered, but that's how they went about it.

Without the players there is no business. The players get paid so much because they risk there health and are paid what they would make at a blue collar job over their lifetimes, and that's just the regulars. The only risk the owners make is monetary. Players put the quality of their lives and more at risk when they step on the ice, and sometimes more. I understand the "common man" thinks that amount of money is absurd, but it is a condensed amount and is as much about what they won't make after their playing days are over. And just like in the working world, the best at their jobs get paid more, and just like in the working world, sometimes better players aren't paid enough and a complete hack has a short period of success and cashes out. The mostly already filthy rich owners get NO sympathy from me.

The "without the players there is no business" logic can be used on anything from accounting firms to Mc Donald's, and I don't see them paying their employees 40-50% of revenues before profit.

Without the owners building or leasing the arenas and selling the games to the public, the players are working at Mc Donalds and playing hockey in front of friends and family on the weekend. The players want too much money, and a lot of the teams can't afford to compete.

The Lightning, for example, usually don't make it out of the red, even with a low-end payroll, unless they get to the playoffs. The players and the agents who run the NHLPA get their money every year, though.

I don't feel sorry for the owners, but I don't feel sorry for players who make millions of dollars a year, either. Let the players split profits, not revenue.

Anyone can flip a burger. Can you even skate in a proffesional hockey game? The reason companies get away with paying minimum wage is because it is common labor. It is easier to replace low to mid level workers. The higher the pay level, the more irreplaceable a worker becomes and the more responsibility and risk they take on. NHL players are more skilled and take on more risk than the common man. Part of the reason stars are making more is inflation and also, as I said earlier, they are being paid for a lifetime of work since the span of an NHL career is much less than that of a common job with low(er) risk. I'm not saying feel sorry for the players, but Bettman and the owners are in the midst of destroying the NHL. These guys can get paid elsewhere. I think a lot of people's frustration with athletes is linked to jealousy and their own sense of moral superiority (which we all have). Given the skill of their jobs, the risk they take in their jobs and the life span of those jobs/careers NHL players aren't overpaid on average. The common man can't relate because the common man isn't skilled enough to play NHL level hockey at even a poor level and also can't relate to the health risks taken every game. Don't feel sorry for them, but with plenty of other professional leagues out there it is the owners and Bettman's terrible management that will drive the best players away and ruin or destroy the NHL.

For a lot of these billionaires, these sports teams are a hobby. Because, frankly, if the owners were actually running a business they would control their own spending. No one said you had to sign that guy for 15 years at $120Mill. Its just like Jerry Reinsdorf when MLB did the same thing. All the owners said they had to get spending under control, then he goes out and signs Frank Thomas to this ridiculous contract.

In the end the owners can't help themselves. In the end the small market teams will suffer as usual. In the end I can't say I really miss hockey all that much.

Bettman is employed by the owners so he's is going to be a yesman, just like any other commissioner would be. What makes Bettman different is how he drives revenue, that's why the NHL has grown by almost 500% in gross profits since he took over.

Seilig? The only major sport NOT to have a work stoppage during their last labor negotiation?

Stern? Who has so much control over his league that just raked in best ever profits that people think its fixed? And whose sport is now big enough globally thanks to his efforts that they're going to ditch the olympics and have their own world cup?

Goodell? Who runs a $9B money making machine that despite mounting evidence that head injuries are killing its alums can't stop driving the entirety of american society?

Or Bettman. Who gets boo'd every year at the trophy ceremony, who wants to keep NHL players out of the olympics despite it being the height of hockey's popularity over the last 6 years, who is in the SECOND lockout in the last 8 years with lost games, and whose main triumph was a 1 year deal with NBC to televise an occasional national game?

I don't care as much about the record. I care that all of the most likely bowl destinations for this Michigan team will directly interfere with it. Between driving to Ann Arbor and pre-game festivities and whatnot, the whole bowl day is ruined. I like the Winter Classic when it makes the Sparties go watch the Citrus in the den, but if it's gonna be in town let it be on Christmas Eve or Jan 2.